The Digital Dis-intermediation and Social Re-intermediation of Work and Labour in India’s Gig Economy

There is little doubt that we are gradually beginning to have a greater understanding of the platform-based gig economy model and its growing influence on work and labour around the world, and in the global South in particular. Existing accounts from emerging economies like India paint an interesting Janus-faced picture of the gig economy: one that relates to ‘digital dis-intermediation’ or the elimination of traditional third-party brokers and middlemen involved in the exchange of urban services, and another that points to ‘social re-intermediation’ or the re-emergence of social actors that continue to shape gig work and labour’s experiences from within and beyond the local urban context. In focusing on the complex interplay that exists between the ‘dis-’ and ‘re-’ intermediation of gig work and labour in India today, this chapter reveals the vital role played by social relations and extended spatial networks in sustaining the modern gig economy in cities of the global South. Drawing from research exploring experiences of gig workers during and after the COVID-19 pandemic in India, the chapter demonstrates how, given the various gaps created by the lack of digital equality, platform regulation and formal institutions of support for gig labour, it is these informal social relations, actors and intermediary networks that often arbitrate labour market entry and access for workers, as well as to redistribute excessive social costs and risks associated with gig work. Overall, the chapter presents an analysis of gig work and labour in India that views this oscillation between ‘digital dis-intermediation’ and ‘social re-intermediation’ as mutually constitutive counter-tendencies of the contemporary gig economy.